All Commentaries

The main focus of the U.S. government’s energy and resources should be on preventive measures, which are far more effective at reducing the threat of nuclear war than any pie-in-the-sky defensive schemes.

Money Talks: The Implications of U.S. Budget Priorities

by Robert L. Borosage, Foreign Policy In Focus | Sep 1, 1999 | Labor, Trade, & Finance, War & Peace

According to a recent report by the Council on Foreign Relations, “[T]he average American believes we spend 18% of the federal budget on foreign affairs, while thinking we should spend only 6%. In reality, foreign affairs spending, the bully pulpit of America’s strength overseas, is now only 1% of the federal budget–a little more than one penny of every federal tax dollar.” 1

Multilateral Debt

by Soren Ambrose | Aug 1, 1999 | Democracy & Governance, Labor, Trade, & Finance

Key Points

AIDS and Developing Countries: Democratizing Access

by Robert Weissman | Aug 1, 1999 | Health

International Investment Rules and the Environment

by Tom Barry, Lyuba Zarsky | Aug 1, 1999 | Environment, Labor, Trade, & Finance

Key Points

International competition for investment keeps environmental standards
"stuck in the mud."
With the right set of global rules, foreign direct investment could
be a channel for ecologically sustainable economic development.
In the coming decade, U.S. policy will be decisive in shaping International
investment rules.

The governance of international capital flows will be one of the key
environmental policy issues of the next decade. Along with labor, human
rights, and other social advocates, environmentalists are increasingly
demanding that international rules and corporate norms governing investment
explicitly embrace environmental and social performance goals.

U.S. Leadership in the Global Economy

by John Cavanagh | Jul 1, 1999 | Democracy & Governance, Labor, Trade, & Finance

In a December 1998 Wall Street Journal/ NBC News survey, 58 percent of Americans polled indicated that “foreign trade has been bad for the U.S. economy.1” Similar U.S. public opinion surveys in recent years register growing public apprehension over the current course of corporate-led economic globalization. Yet, expanding trade and overseas investment has been the Clinton administration’s central strategy both for job growth and for addressing a rapidly changing global economy. This fundamental divide between U.S. government policy and U.S. public opinion represents a monumental challenge for the crafters of U.S. foreign policy at the onset of a new century.